Professional groups

In September 1987 a conference in Harare heard testimony from children who had been tortured by the South African security forces. Over 200 health workers, lawyers, social workers and representatives of student, trade union, religious and women’s organisations from 45 countries met children from within South Africa and exiles living in the frontline states. The conference was organised by Bishop Ambrose Reeves Trust (BART). In the photograph Glenys Kinnock listens to one of the witnesses.

The second issue of Lawyers Against Apartheid’s Bulletin highlighted the detention and torture of children in South Africa and Namibia. It analysed the implications of the new British Local Government Bill for action by local authorities against apartheid.

The ‘Children, Apartheid and Repression in South Africa’ conference held in London in April 1988 was a follow-up to an international conference held in Harare in 1987. It examined how professional groups could support children in South Africa and wider anti-apartheid campaigns. The conference gave a big boost to anti-apartheid campaigning among British healthworkers, social workers, lawyers, architects and teachers.

Briefing papers prepared for the conference on ‘Children Apartheid and Repression’ held in London in 1988. The papers showed how children suffered from the impact of apartheid on education, health, the law, social work and architecture.

Over 300 people attended this meeting to hear Tina Forbes, whose son Ashley was serving a 15-year sentence on Robben Island, and Silus Mkanunu from the South African Association of Democratic Lawyers. The meeting launched SATIS’s ‘No Apartheid Executions’ petition.

This speaking tour of Scotland and northern England was a follow-up to the 1988 conference on ‘Children and Apartheid’. Childcare experts and representatives from South Africa, Namibia and  Mozambique spoke at seminars and meetings at the main regional centres.

After the international conference on ‘Children, Repression and the Law in Apartheid South Africa’ in Harare in September 1987, professionals working with children set up a group under the auspices of  SATIS (Southern Africa the Imprisoned Society) to publicise the treatment of childen under apartheid. This poster advertised a national information tour organised by the group, 22 April–17 May 1989.

T-shirt produced for the campaign to highlight the detention of children in South Africa organised by Southern Africa the Imprisoned Society (SATIS). The campaign arose from a conference held in Harare in 1987 at which children from South Africa testified about their torture in detention. It was carried forward at a meeting held on 23 April 1988 at City University, London by the Harare Working Group.